Nitin leads after Round 7

Chennai: International Master Nitin Senthilvel hasn’t put a foot wrong in the ongoing 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster tournament here on Thursday. After the conclusion of seven rounds, Nitin leads the field with 7 points.Nitin registered a hard-fought 99-move victory on the top board against B Vignesh. Both players gave it their all but it was Nitin who rose to the occasion during crunch situations to bag the full point. In the previous round, Nitin had defeated Armenian GM Baghdasaryan Vahe in an encounter that lasted 50 moves. Behind Nitin in the second position were Russian GM Savchenko Boris, the top seed, and IM LR Srihari on 6.0 points.In the upset of the day, International Master Srijit Paul (Elo 2399) went down to Daakshin Arun (Elo 1927). Srijit clearly overlooked a sacrifice which resulted in a check-mate. tnn